Following on from last Friday’s piece, about contracting Covid despite being triple jabbed and super-cautious, I have tested positive again this morning. It’s a whole week since I first saw what a positive test looks like, but now I am not alone. My son tested positive two days ago, on Monday morning. This means that he is on Day 3 of his self-isolation and I am on Day 8 of mine. We are self-isolating together, as it were. The symptoms, for both of us, are mild.

The rules regarding self-isolation changed last Wednesday (23 December, the day of my first positive tests). The required period was reduced from 10 days down to 7, providing you get two negative Lateral Flow results, 24 hours apart, on Days 6 and 7. In common with most of the country we are running low on Lateral Flow tests so I waited until today to test and today’s result means that I will remain house-bound until New Year’s Day. My son will stay self-isolating for a few days after that.

It was a strange experience, staying in different rooms from the rest of the family for five whole days. We missed out on simple things like eating together and watching TV together for the whole of the Christmas period. At least my son and I can now eat and watch TV in the same room, and play pool on our £47 pool table from Argos. Apart from a single day in September and another earlier this month, we had played at least three games every day since November 2020. Earlier today we were able to watch the extraordinary World Darts Championship match between Callan Rydz and Nathan Aspinall. The former won 4-0, and he plays the game so quickly it’s like a whole new game: Speed Darts

Fortunately, my wife and daughter continue to test negative, so our lives are currently arranged like a Jewish wedding spread over several days: boys in one room, girls in another. L’Chaim!